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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 







CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 



Christian Science 


By 

RAY CLARKSON HARKER, D. D. 



CINCINNATI : JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 



BA L9S5 
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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Depths Received 

JUL 29 I y08 

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COPY A / 


Copyright, 1908, 

By Jennings and Graham 


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Christian Science 


The modern movement known as Chris- 
tian Science has been treated often with 
contempt and scorn, and sometimes even 
fiercely attacked. Hard and harsh things 
have been said. We desire to utter no word 
of bitterness. It is not to scoff, nor to sneer, 
nor to ridicule that we speak. This is too 
serious a matter about which to joke. Too 
many vital interests are involved to be flip- 
pant. As John W. Churchman declares: 
“It is easy to ridicule where you can not 
cope, and a very small genius may be a 
very large jester.” 

There are earnest souls who are desiring 
to know the truth. There are perplexed 
people who are hesitating, wondering, and 
hovering between two opinions. It is for 
the help of the sincerely perplexed and hes- 
itating that we speak. 

5 


6 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


We know that very good people have 
become Christian Scientists. Their pur- 
poses are high, their hearts are sincere, 
their lives are pure, their earnestness is 
commendable. 

There are some important truths taught 
by Christian Scientists. To condemn their 
teaching wholesale reveals ignorance and 
weakens argument. But discrimination is 
needed. There is a seductive blending of 
the true and the false that is so subtle that 
even the elect may be infatuated and misled. 

We accede readily that drugging has 
been vastly overdone, that it would be a 
great advance if people would pay wise 
physicians for advice on how to live prop- 
erly rather than for medicine after they are 
sick. We grant, without argument, that 
our age is too largely materialistic, and we 
desire not to be slow in according to Chris- 
tian Science its meed of praise for helping 
to check materialistic tendencies. 

Christian Science has emphasized the 
important fact of the influence of the mind 
over the body. That mind has such in- 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


7 


fluence has been recognized for many cen- 
turies, yet we admit that Christian Science 
has brought this fact into prominence anew. 
But when the founder of Christian Science 
claims the discovery of the power of mind 
over matter, she either reveals strange ig- 
norance or makes a false claim. Men have 
known this fact for millenniums. Plato 
said: “The body is not the instrument with 
which the physicians cure the body; but 
they cure the body with the mind ; but the 
mind which is sick can cure nothing.” 
The Bible said of old, “A merry heart 
doeth good like a medicine.” 

Psychologists agree that our mental con- 
dition is an important factor in the causing 
and curing of sickness. Laycock says: 
“The most eminent and successful physi- 
cians have all been psychologists; for a 
knowledge of a practical science of mind 
is fundamentally necessary to the practice 
of medicine.” * 


*This quotation and two or three others are taken from 
“ Force of Mind,” where they are quoted by the author of that 
book. 


8 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

The medical profession is familiar with 
the fact that reading about a disease will 
sometimes produce the symptoms of the 
disease. Doctor G. E. Rinnie says: “I 
would remind you of the immense influence 
exerted by the mind on the body. I need 
only refer, for example, to the effect of 
sudden emotion, fear, or pleasure upon the 
heart, producing in some cases merely pal- 
pitation, at other times actual syncope, or 
even sudden death.” Alfred Schofield in 
his great book, “The Force of Mind,” de- 
clares that the mental factor is always 
present, and that in many cases it is the 
mental factor alone that cures. 

It is well known that in fear the mouth 
becomes parched. “Fear,” says one, “will 
so dry the throat that raw rice can not be 
swallowed. This is a test in India for the 
detection of a murderer. The suspected 
man is brought forward, and given a hand- 
ful of dry rice to swallow. If he is inno- 
cent he can probably do this; if he is guilty 
he positively can not, fear having com- 
pletely dried up his mouth.” In the same 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


9 


way we are told that the Southern planter 
used to run his own detective bureau. All 
the slaves under suspicion for any crime 
were compelled to put a piece of cotton in 
the mouth for a few minutes. The cotton 
that came out the dryest marked the 
criminal. 

“It is a well-known physiological fact,” 
says one, “that fear may temporarily inter- 
rupt any or all of the functions of the 
body.” Professor Coe gives this incident: 
“A boy eight or nine years of age was 
troubled with a slight asthma. Whenever 
he returned from a visit to his grandmother 
he was audibly worse. The mother said 
that it came about in this way: The grand- 
mother would say, ‘Come here, child, and 
let me hear you breathe!’ Then followed 
exclamations and fussing and coddling un- 
til the child believed that he was in a bad 
way, and actually returned home with his 
asthma perceptibly aggravated.” 

“There is respectable authority,” says 
Professor Coe, “for the story of the French 
prisoner who actually died from the belief 


10 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


that he was being bled to death. Experi- 
menters pretended to open an artery in one 
of his arms, concealing the arm mean- 
while from his view. To simulate the flow- 
ing of blood, they caused a stream of warm 
water to trickle upon the supposed wound. 
The prisoner, believing that he was bleed- 
ing to death, went through all the appro- 
priate symptoms, and finally died as the 
result of the experiment.” 

Sir B. W. Richardson says: “I have 
never met with a case of intermittent pulse 
that was not due to some mental cause — 
shock, fear, sorrow, etc.” 

Many have known cases similar to the 
one given by Doctor Norton Prince, where 
a lady always had violent catarrh in the 
nose (hay fever) whenever a rose was in 
the room. He gave her an artificial rose 
one day, and the usual symptoms followed. 
He then showed her that it was made of 
paper, that it had no pollen, and all symp- 
toms disappeared. 

Jaundice caused by fits of anger and fear 
are not uncommon. Anxiety is the mother 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


11 


of many a physical disorder. Worry brings 
a world of woe in its train. 

There is a story of a pilgrim who met 
a Plague going to Bagdad. The pilgrim 
asked what the Plague’s errand might be 
to that city. The Plague said: “I am go- 
ing to Bagdad to kill five thousand peo- 
ple.” A few weeks later the pilgrim met 
the Plague on his return from the city and 
said: “You told me that you were going 
to Bagdad to kill five thousand people, but 
you have killed fifty thousand.” “Oh, no!” 
said the Plague, “I killed only five thou- 
sand, the rest died from fright.” 

Hack Tuke in his book, “Influence of 
the Mind upon the Body,” asserts: “There 
is no sensation — general or special — ex- 
cited by agents acting upon the body from 
without which can not also be excited from 
within by emotional states affecting the 
sensory centers.” Think of strawberries 
and cream, and the mouth waters. You 
have tried to keep from blushing, and the 
very thought crimsoned your cheek. A 
man used to write upon the margin of cer- 


12 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


tain paragraphs of his addresses, “Weep 
here.” He had his lacrymal glands at his 
command. 

We are to remember also that health is 
contagious. In place of fear let there be 
hope, expectancy, and faith, and great may 
be the good results. “Faith, hope, and 
love,” say psychologists, “are full of con- 
structive suggestion.” The following in- 
stance is given to illustrate the power of 
mental suggestion: “A patient had submit- 
ted to an operation, but the wound had 
failed to heal. Suppuration set in, and con- 
tinued until the patient despaired of life 
and was brought home to die. A new phy- 
sician was summoned. Suspecting that the 
difficulty had a nervous or mental root, he 
proceeded little by little, without the use 
of medicines, to inspire hope in the pa- 
tient’s mind. He talked to her about the 
influence of the mind upon the body, even 
had her read passages on the subject from 
scientific books, taught her breathing, re- 
laxation, and how to secure physical exer- 
cise though lying helpless in bed. In three 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


13 


weeks the wound was entirely dry, though 
medication other than ordinary bandaging 
had not been resorted to, and hypnosis had 
not been employed at all.” 

George E. Gorham, in the Outlook, 
August 19, 1899, gives several incidents of 
people cured by mental suggestion. Here 
is one: “A few years ago a woman lay in 
bed, paralyzed the greater part of the win- 
ter. A hot iron or ice applied to the legs 
produced no pain, a knife thrust through 
the skin produced no pain. The patient 
could not move the legs ; many other 
troublesome symptoms continued for weeks 
and weeks, notwithstanding the best efforts 
of the medical attendants. A noted spe- 
cialist from New York gave as his opinion 
that a serious organic disease of the spinal 
cord existed, and that recovery was very 
doubtful. Another physician was called, 
who, after careful study, decided that no 
serious disease of the cord existed, that the 
functional activities of the unconscious pro- 
cesses of the body were on a strike, as it 
were ; in other words, it was a case of hys- 


14 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


terical paralysis. He therefore said to the 
patient: ‘I can cure you if you can endure 
the treatment; it will be severe . 5 The pa- 
tient assented, and the worst tasting medi- 
cine was given, and the most painful appli- 
cation of electricity applied. In such 
heroic measures the patient had a great 
faith, and as soon as the faith entered the 
mind the unconscious processes responded, 
and the paralysis was cured . 55 

Some years ago General Pleasanton be- 
gan the blue glass cures, by which many 
people found relief. Mental suggestion 
and a little light coming through a blue 
glass liberated many people from physical 
troubles. 

Charles II of England cured thousands 
of scrofula cases simply by his touch. 
Scurvy has been cured among sailors by 
the prospect of a naval battle. The author 
of “Science and Health 55 refers to the case 
where Sir Humphry Davy cured a case of 
paralysis by simply introducing a ther- 
mometer into the mouth of the patient. 
This was to ascertain the temperature of 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


15 


the body, but the sick man thought it was 
the chosen healing process, and he recov- 
ered. Doctor Carpenter says: “The con- 
fident expectation of a cure is the most 
potent means of bringing it about, doing 
that which no medical treatment can ac- 
complish may be affirmed as the general- 
ized result of experiences of the most varied 
kind extending through a long series of 
ages.” 

The cheerful contemplation of the beau- 
tiful and the good has great influence, and 
ought to be a part of every Christian’s life. 
While anger and hate are suicidal, love is 
life-giving. We must cultivate the cheer- 
ful, hopeful, trustful attitude of mind. 
Serenity and peace are a part of the her- 
itage of the child of God. Listen to the 
divine utterances: “Cast all your care upon 
God.” “All things work together for good 
to those who love God.” “Take no anxious 
thought for the morrow.” “Thou wilt keep 
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.” 
“Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 


16 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


things are honest, whatsoever things are 
just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso- 
ever things are lovely, whatsoever things 
are of good report; if there be any virtue, 
and if there be any praise, think on these 
things.” Thus we see that to be trustful, 
to be free from worry, to think high and 
holy thoughts is cardinal in the Christian’s 
creed. 

That people are healed through Chris- 
tian Science we have no doubt. But it is 
well to remember that there are many 
forms of healing. Here is a list taken from 
an eminent authority: 

1. There are the prayer and faith cures 
at Lourdes; which are based upon faith in 
God and the Virgin. 

2. Relic cures of all sorts; where the 
basis is faith in the holy emblems, seen or 
touched. 

3. Evangelical faith cures; based upon 
external divine power. 

4. Mind cures; effected by the realiza- 
tion of the power of mind over matter, or 
by the conscious effect of the mind of the 
healer on the patient. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 17 

5. Christian Science cures; based on the 
unreality of disease, and the direction of 
the mind to the Divine. 

6. Spiritualistic cures; effected by faith 
in departed spirits. 

7. Mesmeric cures; effected by a sup- 
posed fluid or magnetic influence passing 
from healer to patient. 

8. Direct faith healing; effected by faith- 
healers, in whom the patient has confidence 
and who heal on the spot. 

Every one of these methods can produce 
bona fide cases of healing, and we do not 
need to dispute them. Their testimony is 
credible. 

But many of the boasts of various healers 
are vain. Many people will recover from 
sickness if simply let alone. Oliver Wen- 
dell Holmes declared that, if doctors would 
give simply a harmless remedy, nine-tenths 
of the patients would recover. As M. W. 
Gifford suggests: “Many actual diseases — 
as measles, scarlet-fever, smallpox, and 
some kinds of fevers — run a natural course, 
and often terminate in health without medi- 
2 


18 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


cines or drugs, simply by proper care and 
diet, allowing nature full play in the exer- 
cise of her recuperative and restorative 
powers. Medicines never cure disease, they 
merely aid nature in putting her recupera- 
tive forces to work.” 

Many people get well who were never 
sick. “A helpless cripple,” we are told, 
“one day limped into the office of the cele- 
brated Dr. Valentine Mott. The doctor 
knew about the case, and, pretending to be 
very angry, he snatched the crutches and 
drove the man out upon the street, and the 
helpless cripple of a few moments before 
ran away in fright.” 

Many folks think they get well, but find, 
later, that it was a momentary mental hallu- 
cination. Many troubles are the result of 
mental causes, and such may be removed 
by mental processes, yet, after allowances 
have been made, we believe that God heals 
even beyond the ordinary processes, and be- 
yond what mental suggestion and medical 
skill may do. There used to be in the 
Church “The Unction of the Sick,” but it 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


19 


has been almost forgotten. While we bless 
the Lord as the One who “forgiveth all 
thine iniquities,” let us not lose the note 
that it is He who “healeth all thy diseases.” 

The extreme claims of Christian Scien- 
tists, that they do as the apostles, and even 
as Christ did, are not true. Christian Sci- 
ence does not cure those born deaf or blind. 
It does not restore lost members. It does 
not raise the dead. The miracles of Jesus 
were wrought instantaneously, while Chris- 
tian Scientists take weeks of treatment gen- 
erally. Jesus never failed to heal when 
He tried. Christian Scientists fail every 
day. The apostles had to appeal to Christ 
once, but He did instantly what they could 
not do. 

Many die young who are treated by 
Christian Science, some of whom, we have 
good reason to believe, could be rescued 
by medical skill. There are such cases in 
every community. Christian Scientists can 
not take refuge behind the statement that 
such people did not exercise faith, because 
Mrs. Eddy asserts (page 33) that even 


20 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

profanity and atheism do not need to inter- 
fere with the healing. Permele truly says, 
“A succession of fatalities follows this 
movement as a black shadow.” 

Christian Science teaches its followers to 
say, “Nothing the matter.” Why, then, do 
they die? Mrs. Eddy had to go to a dentist. 
So do many Christian Scientists. If noth- 
ing is the matter, why do they do this? 

Mrs. Eddy says: “When there were 
fewer doctors, and less thought was given 
to sanitary subjects, there were better con- 
stitutions and less disease.” Dr. Buckley 
answers : “This sentence shows her igno- 
rance of history. The ravages of cholera, 
yellow fever, smallpox, and scores of other 
plagues have been almost eradicated by 
scientific research, hygiene, and medical 
and surgical treatment.” 

But the chief peril in regard to any proc- 
ess of healing comes when the person who 
works a cure tries, not only to found a 
philosophy upon it, but also to establish a 
religion. 

The healer is so apt to think that the 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 21 


healing proves the correctness of the the- 
ological ideas he may hold. Mrs. Eddy 
thinks her cures prove her philosophy cor- 
rect. This is the point of peril. People 
say: “Christian Science must be a good 
thing, people are cured, ‘by their fruits ye 
shall know them.’ ” They think that settles 
the matter beyond dispute. Cures may be 
wrought and the results be not at all due 
to the teachings of the healer. People may 
work cures, but the philosophy of the cures 
be totally false. Let us illustrate this. 
Some years ago, when in Rome, the writer 
went to see the famous Bambino Doll, 
which was sacredly kept in a Catholic 
church on the Capitoline Hill. This doll 
is profusely decorated with jewels. Upon 
great festival days it is carried about the 
streets of Rome. The sick come to this 
doll, and many are said to be healed by it. 
We doubt not that some are relieved of 
their trouble. Now, you talk with the 
monk who has charge of the doll, or with 
the persons healed, and ask them the phi- 
losophy of the cures, and they will tell you 


22 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


that the divine power of the Bambino did 
it. But you feel very sure that it was men- 
tal suggestion. While the cures may be 
genuine, the philosophy of the cures is 
false. Every one of the eight methods of 
healing, to which reference has already 
been made, can produce instances of cures 
equally wonderful. Surely you would not 
insist that all the philosophies of the cures 
are correct. From time to time some man 
claims to be the Christ come to earth again, 
and people are cured who come to him. 
We believe people are healed, but the phi- 
losophy of the cures we repudiate. 

Use of Words . Mrs. Eddy gives fanci- 
ful meanings to words which have no basis 
in fact. What she says about the word 
“Adam” may illustrate. In the 1883 edi- 
tion of “Science and Health,” Mrs. Eddy 
stated that the word “Adam” is from the 
Latin demens. But the name Adam was 
given centuries upon centuries before there 
was any Latin language. Edgar P. Hill 
calls attention to the fact that in the 1886 
edition the author says, “Adam is identical 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 23 


with the Latin dcemon” But daemon is not 
Latin at all, but Greek. In the edition of 
1902 she says: “Divide the name Adam 
into two syllables, and it reads, A-dam, or 
obstruction. This suggests the thought of 
something fluid, or mortal mind in solution. 
It further suggests the thought of that 
darkness upon the face of the deep, when 
matter or dust was deemed the agent of 
Deity in creating man — when matter, as 
that which is accursed, stood opposed in 
spirit.” This wonderful metamorphosis in 
the meaning of this word seems most mar- 
velous in the face of the asserted declara- 
tion in her first edition, and repeated in the 
rest, that her book was a direct revelation 
from God. 

Mrs. Eddy adopts the allegorical method 
in the interpretation of Scripture. That 
her interpretations are highly fanciful and 
fantastic may be seen from the following 
specimens: Angels are good thoughts; Ca- 
naan means sensuous belief; Dan means 
animal magnetism; Gad means Science, 
spiritual being understood, haste towards 


24 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


harmony; Gihon (river) means the rights 
of women acknowledged morally, civilly, 
and socially; Ham means Corporeal belief, 
sensuality, slavery, tyranny; Hiddekel 
(river) means Divine Science understood 
and acknowledged; Holy Ghost means Di- 
vine Science, the development of Eternal 
Life, Truth, and Love; Issachar (Jacob’s 
son) means Corporeal belief, the offspring 
of error, envy, hatred, selfishness, self-will, 
lust \ Mother means God, divine and eternal 
Principle, Life, Truth, and Love. 

More “straw” men are marshaled in 
“Science and Health,” and then speedily 
demolished, than in any book we have ever 
read. Here are some of them. Mrs. Eddy 
says: “Sickness, sin, death are not the true 
and the good.” Of course not. But who 
ever said they were? Again, she says of 
sickness, sin, and death: “They are false 
and erroneous, that truth never created.” 
Of course truth never created them. But 
why insinuate that anybody ever intimated 
that truth created sickness, sin, and death? 
On page 137 we read: “Take away the spir- 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 25 


itual significance of Scripture, and that 
compilation can do no more for mortals 
than can moonbeams to melt a river of ice.” 
We all believe that if you rob the Bible of 
its spiritual message you have only a shell 
left. On page 187 Mrs. Eddy says: “Mind 
never becomes dust.” Who ever thought 
it did? On page 254 we find these words: 
“To love one’s neighbor as one’s self is a 
divine idea; but this idea can never be 
seen, felt, or understood through the physi- 
cal senses.” But who ever suggested that 
you could taste, smell, see, feel, or hear 
love for your neighbor with your physical 
senses? On page 482 Mrs. Eddy ventures: 
“If five corporeal senses were the medium 
through which to understand God, then 
palsy, blindness, and deafness would place 
man in a terrible situation, where he would 
be ‘without hope and without God in the 
world.’ ” But who is so stupid as to say 
that we do taste, smell, see, feel, and hear 
God with the five senses? Mental science 
teaches that moral good and evil are per- 
ceived by the moral sense within man, and 


26 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


not by the physical senses. On page 351 
are the words, “The Master said plainly 
physique was not Spirit.” How amazing 
is this platitude! On another page we 
read: “Brains, bones, and other material 
elements” do not constitute man. It has 
been long taught that the real man is the 
spirit within. The figure that this physical 
body is the instrument of the real man, as 
the gun is the instrument of the soldier, is 
one that has been used for generations. 
Why, then, should Mrs. Eddy pretend dis- 
covery? On page 483 Mrs. Eddy ventures 
again: “Matter can not believe, but mind 
understands.” Of course matter can not be- 
lieve, and of course it is mind that under- 
stands; but why propound such evident 
facts as though they were something pro- 
found and new? On page 474 Mrs. Eddy 
imagines the question asked, “Do not brains 
think and nerves feel?” Then she demol- 
ishes the question. It has been long taught 
that the brains and nerves are only instru- 
ments of the soul. 

Mrs. Eddy says concerning the Eucha- 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


27 


rist: “His true flesh and blood were his 
Life; and they truly eat his flesh and drink 
his blood who partake of that Life. The 
true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacra- 
ment is confined to the use of bread and 
wine.” People who have not known the 
teaching of the Church in this matter read 
these sentences and say, “How beautiful 
and true I” But this is what the Church has 
long taught. For centuries the formula has 
been used, “Feed on Him in thy heart by 
faith with thanksgiving.” Thus very often 
Mrs. Eddy pretends to make discovery 
where her words are sheerest platitude. 

Let us look at the philosophy of Christian 
Science. Christian Science says, “Mind is 
all, and matter is naught.” Mrs. Eddy de- 
clares, “Everything is mind; on this state- 
ment I stand.” These declarations are con- 
trary to the testimony of the senses. But 
Mrs. Eddy gets rid of that difficulty by 
saying that “the testimony of the senses is 
never to be accepted.” Mr. Cook observes : 
“Christian Science asserts the nothingness 
of everything that stares us in face.” 


28 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


While with one breath Mrs. Eddy asserts, 
“Everything is mind,” with another breath 
she says “the lost substance of the lungs” 
has been restored frequently by Christian 
Science. She declares that there is no such 
thing as matter, yet she says: “Men say the 
body is dead, but this death was the de- 
parture of a mortal delusion; not of mat- 
ter. The matter is still there ” We are 
reminded of Byron’s lines concerning 
Bishop Berkeley’s idealistic philosophy: 

“ When Bishop Berkeley says there is no matter, 

It is no matter what Bishop Berkeley says.” 

Where is the proof that “all is mind?” 
The great scientists of the centuries do not 
assent to this. Our own intelligence and 
the united testimony of uncounted millions 
of countless generations deny it. The Bible 
says: “I pray God your whole spirit and 
soul and body be preserved blameless.” 
Where is the authority which must lead us 
to surrender our own convictions, the plain 
declarations of the great scientists of all 
the ages, and the testimony of the Bible? 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


29 


The only answer is — the dictum of Mrs. 
Eddy. 

Again, Christian Science says, “God is 
all.” If we can credit the testimony of self- 
consciousness, this is not true. But if we 
deny the testimony of our senses and the 
testimony of self-consciousness, how can we 
remain in the realm of the rational at all? 

Mrs. Eddy says, “The testimony of the 
senses is never to be accepted.” But in her 
citation of cures she says, “I saw,” “I 
heard,” etc., and thus uses the testimony 
of her senses to prove her demonstrations. 
She must have forgotten for the moment 
that “the testimony of the senses is never to 
be accepted.” 

The author of “Science and Health” says, 
“God is all, and all is God.” But on an- 
other page she says, “Man is not God, and 
God is not man.” If logic is to be trusted 
at all, here is contradiction or man is anni- 
hilated. 

Christian Science asserts that there is no 
such thing as disease, sickness, or pain; and 
yet its disciples claim to cure organic dis- 


30 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


eases. This is strange logic. There is no 
such thing as death; yet, says one, “people 
espouse a new faith to escape death, which 
its author firmly maintains never existed.” 

M. W. Gifford calls attention to this 
statement of Mrs. Eddy’s: “Mortal matter, 
or body, is but a false concept of mortal 
mind;” but, “mortal mind is nothing.” 
“Therefore,” says Mr. Gifford, “mortal 
body is but an illusion of a nothing.” “Sin, 
sickness, and death are nothing,” says Chris- 
tian Science. So Mr. Gifford concludes: 
“Since the body is the illusion of a nothing, 
and the diseases are nothing, the healing 
also is nothing.” Mrs. Eddy herself says, 
“the nothingness of nothing is plain.” 

“The property of alcohol,” says the 
author of “Science and Health,” “is to in- 
toxicate ; but if the common thought of the 
majority had endowed it with nourishing 
quality, like milk, it would produce a simi- 
lar thought.” Thus an ample door is 
thrown ajar to get drunk and then blame 
the thought of the majority. 

Again she writes: “If a dose of poison 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


31 


is swallowed through mistake, and the pa- 
tient dies, even though physician and pa- 
tient are expecting favorable results, does 
belief, you ask, cause this death? Even so, 
and as directly as if the poison had been 
intentionally taken.” Here again is the 
tyranny of the majority. 

“Only as mortal mind endows the poison 
does it operate,” says Christian Science. 
But how about the remedies discovered by 
accident? The power of anaesthetics is said 
to have been so discovered. Here mortal 
mind had no chance to endow the substance 
with any special quality. 

Some people are afraid of a draft. Chris- 
tian Scientists think themselves immune, 
but, if Mrs. Eddy’s theory were true, Chris- 
tian Scientists would take cold the same 
as those who are afraid of a draft, because 
of the rule of the majority. 

The author of “Science and Health” 
says: “When the unthinking lobster loses 
his claw, it grows again. If the Science of 
Life were understood, it would be found 
that the senses of the Mind are never lost, 


32 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

and that matter has no sensation. Then the 
human limb would be replaced as readily 
as the lobster’s claw — not with an artificial 
limb, but with the genuine one.” If this 
be the truth, why do not all the lower ani- 
mals get their limbs renewed when lost? 
After repeatedly trying to prove through 
hundreds of laborious pages that the body 
has no reality, it sounds rather strange to 
hear Mrs. Eddy say that “the human limb 
would be replaced as readily as the lob- 
ster’s claw — not with an artificial limb, but 
with the genuine one.” 

We have in Christian Science mediaeval 
mysticism, parts of Hindu pantheism, some 
of Bishop Berkeley’s idealism, and words 
of Holy Scripture. People of India are 
taught that all they see is but illusion. Pun- 
dita Ramabai, a native of India, says: “On 
my arrival in New York I was told that a 
new philosophy was being taught in the 
United States, and that it had won many 
disciples. The philosophy was called 
Christian Science, and when I asked what 
its teaching was, I recognized it as being 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 33 


the same philosophy that has been taught 
among my people four thousand years. It 
has wrecked millions of lives and caused 
immeasurable suffering and sorrow in my 
land, for it is based on selfishness and knows 
no sympathy or compassion.” These words 
indicate that we have in Christian Science 
a pagan importation. 

The Christian Science conception of 
God. Christian Science denies the per- 
sonality of God. Mrs. Eddy says: “God 
is not a person who can say T or be ad- 
dressed as ‘thou.’ ” Again, “God is mind; 
He is divine principle, not person. God 
is principle.” But we ask, how can man 
have affection for a principle? How can 
man love a God who is not personal? 

Mrs. Eddy has the habit of reversing 
sentences. By doing this she puts an at- 
tribute of God for God Himself. The 
Bible says, “God is love.” Mrs. Eddy re- 
verses this sentence and says, “Love is God.” 
But the Bible says, “Love is of God.” Mrs. 
Eddy puts an attribute of God in place of 
God, and she deifies the attribute. Being 

3 


34 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


and qualities of being are to be distin- 
guished. When we deify the attribute or 
quality we get a partial and imperfect 
view of God. 

People say, “God is good.” We all 
agree. Then Christian Science says, “Good 
is God,” and we demur, because to deify 
the attribute is not true philosophy. 

In the edition of 1906 of “Science and 
Health” we read: “Spirit, God has created 
all in and of Himself. Spirit never cre- 
ated matter.” The Bible says: “In the be- 
ginning God created the heaven and the 
earth.” Here are two authorities in con- 
flict: the Bible and Mrs. Eddy. Take your 
choice. 

Christian Science says: “Man coexists 
with God and the universe.” The Bible 
says: “And God created man in his own 
image.” Again you must make your choice 
of authority, for these statements do not 
agree. 

Christian Science says: “There is no sep- 
arate self.” One well observes: “If there 
is no separate self, then there is no personal 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 35 


accountability; there is no personal immor- 
tality.” 

The Christian Science idea of man and 
sin . Christian Science asserts that “man 
has always been perfect, is now perfect, and 
always will be perfect.” Hence there is 
no room for sin. Mrs. Eddy says: “Man 
is incapable of sin, sickness, and death, in- 
asmuch as he derives his essence from God, 
and possesses not a single original, or un- 
derived power.” But Mrs. Eddy says also, 
“Universal salvation rests on progression 
and probation.” Where is the probation, 
if sin be impossible? Christian Science de- 
clares that to admit the fact of sin makes 
God the author of sin, since God is all. 
But there is no relief in her philosophy 
here, no matter how much the human heart 
may crave it, because Mrs. Eddy admits 
the fact of error and illusion, and by parity 
of reasoning, if God be all, He is the author 
of error and illusion. 

Mrs. Eddy says, “God could never make 
men capable of sin.” Why not say then, 
“God could never make men capable of 


36 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


error and illusion?” Christian Scientists 
call sin an “error;” Shakespeare said, “A 
rose by any other name would smell as 
sweet.” And sin by any other name is just 
as black and hellish. 

Thoughtful men for ages have recog- 
nized that you can not have a responsible 
moral being without the possibility of sin. 
You must have the power of choice to have 
a moral being. 

Again, Christian Science says, “Because 
soul is immortal, soul can not sin.” The 
Bible says: “The soul that sinneth it shall 
die.” It is yet again a question of authority 
— Mrs. Eddy’s or the Bible’s. If Mrs. 
Eddy be correct, then John was wrong 
when he cried, “Behold the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world.” 
If Mrs. Eddy be correct, then Jesus was in 
error when He represented the publican 
offering the acceptable prayer, “God be 
merciful to me, a sinner” Mrs. Eddy 
says, “To suppose that God forgives or 
punishes sin is to misunderstand love.” 
But Jesus said: “Think ye that those eight- 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 37 


een upon whom the tower of Siloam fell, 
and slew them, were sinners above all men 
that dwell in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay; 
but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish.” Take your choice of authority. 

Mrs. Eddy says, “All sin is of the flesh.” 
But flesh is only the instrument of the soul. 
The body is only “the organ of guilt.” I 
use this hand to fire a death-shot, but it is 
not my hand that is guilty, it is the soul 
within. In perfect accord with this con- 
ception Jesus said, “He that hateth his 
brother is a murderer;” “he that looketh 
upon a woman to lust after her hath com- 
mitted adultery already with her in his 
heart.” So, when the author of “Science 
and Health” says, “All sin is of the flesh,” 
she seems wide of the mark. The flesh is 
simply the instrument of the sinning soul. 

Christian Science says, “It is the sense 
of sin, and not a sinful soul, which is lost.” 
But the Bible says, “What is man profited 
if he gain the whole world and lose his 
own soul?” Here is conflict. It is again 
a question as to who is authority on this 
subject, Christ or Mrs. Eddy. 


38 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


Christian Science says, “Deny sin.” The 
Bible says, “Confess it and forsake it.” “If 
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
from all unrighteousness.” “He that cov- 
ereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso 
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have 
mercy.” Dr. A. W. Patten has well indi- 
cated how a criminal convicted of a foul 
crime may stand up and say: “May it 
please the court and the gentlemen of the 
jury, there is no crime. I have committed 
no wrong; it only seems to be wrong. It is 
all right. I am God’s man. I am not re- 
sponsible. There is no proper I, nor sep- 
arate self, I am a part of God. Your wrong 
beliefs call this a crime. It only seems to 
be so; it is only a part of the universal 
harmony, the universal good.” That state- 
ment is in exact accord with Christian 
Science philosophy. 

Christian Scientists say, “We never speak 
of sin; sin does not exist.” The reply to 
this is the Bible’s plain utterances: “If we 
say that we have no sin, we deceive our- 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 39 


selves, and the truth is not in us.” “If we 
say that we have not sinned, we make Him 
a liar, and His word is not in us.” 

There being no sin, there can be no 
atonement that has any vicarious element 
in it. According to Christian Science, 
“Christ the just” did not “die for the un- 
just.” Mrs. Eddy claims that the suffer- 
ings of Christ were only a “great illusion.” 
With this and other conceptions of Chris- 
tian Science before us, Mr. Burrell well 
asks: “What becomes of the atonement, 
when suffering which was not suffering, 
in a body which was not a body, was of- 
fered in expiation for sin which was not 
sin?” 

In her “Miscellaneous Writings” Mrs. 
Eddy hazards the statement: “Had wisdom 
characterized all the sayings of Jesus, He 
would not have prophesied His own death; 
and thereby hastened or caused it.” Thus 
she presumes to point out the folly of 
Jesus. Instead of denying the sufferings of 
Christ and calling His death the “great il- 
lusion,” we believe that it would better 


40 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


befit mortals who are dependent upon His 
grace, to love Him because He has suffered 
for us. 

The idea of vicarious sacrifice is in all 
history. We possess intellectual freedom 
because others have suffered and died to 
secure it. Others have grappled with su- 
perstitions, faced enraged kings and flam- 
ing fagots, and their self-immolation has 
brought us freedom. Vicarious sacrifice is 
bound up with our political liberty. Athens 
preserved her independence because heroes 
died at Marathon. The Swiss have breathed 
the air of freedom because patriots gath- 
ered the Austrian spears into their bosoms. 
In every land treasures of wealth and 
richer treasures of blood have been poured 
out as libations on the altars of liberty. Vi- 
carious sacrifice is seen m the home . 
Through suffering and sacrifice, and 
through heavy drafts on affection you have 
enjoyed the blessings of your early home. 
Man has failed to read history who does 
not see the principle of vicarious sacrifice 
interwoven into the fabric of the race. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 41 


In regard to baptism, Jesus said, “Go 
and baptize;” but Christian Science will 
have nothing of this. 

Jesus said of the sacrament of the Lord’s 
Supper, “Do this in remembrance of Me;” 
but Christian Science does not celebrate 
this Holy Sacrament. 

Concerning Prayer. In treating the sub- 
ject of prayer, Mrs. Eddy denies again the 
personality of God. But how can a per- 
son pray intelligently to a principle? The 
text books of Christian Science say : “Prayer 
to a personal God is a hindrance, it is a 
misapprehension of the source and manner 
of all good; asking God to pardon sin is 
a vain repetition such as the heathen use.” 
But while Christian Science says, “Prayer 
to a personal God is a hindrance,” Jesus 
teaches His disciples to say, “Our Father 
which art in heaven.” It is again a ques- 
tion of authority. Mrs. Eddy says, “Lips 
must be mute and materialism silent” in 
prayer. We believe in silent prayer, but 
Jesus prayed aloud as well as in silence. 
The author of “Science and Health” says: 


42 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


“Calling on Him to forgive our work, 
badly done or left undone, implies the vain 
supposition that we have nothing to do but 
ask pardon, and that afterwards we shall 
be free to repeat the offense.” She implies 
that the Churches teach that people can be 
saved from sin while they continue in sin. 
This is a false implication. 

Mrs. Eddy says, “No final judgment 
awaits mortals.” The Bible says : “He hath 
appointed a day, in the which He will judge 
the world in righteousness by that man 
whom He hath ordained.” “It is appointed 
unto man once to die, and after that the 
judgment.” “Every one shall give an ac- 
count of himself to God.” “But why dost 
thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou 
set at naught thy brother? for we shall all 
stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” 
We all recognize the solemnity of a pres- 
ent judgment, but the final assize is a mat- 
ter of the future, and therefore of revela- 
tion. Mrs. Eddy says of this future event 
that it will never be; the Bible says re- 
peatedly that it will be. Take your choice 
of authority. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 43 


Thus Christian Science denies the per- 
sonality of God, it denies the personality 
of man, it denies the reality of sin, it 
declares the sufferings of Christ an illu- 
sion, it calls prayer to a personal God a 
hindrance, it denies the coming judgment, 
and by these denials and declarations for- 
feits its right to be called Christian. We 
may say with Mary, “They have taken 
away my Lord, and I know not where they 
have laid Him.” 

Christian Science tends to drive sym- 
pathy from the heart. Its teachings, if fol- 
lowed, would paralyze the emotions. Its 
dictum is : “Sympathy with sin, sorrow, and 
sickness would dethrone God as truth.” 
Thus it would close up the fountains of 
sympathy. According to Christian Science 
there is no need to come into sympathetic 
touch with suffering humanity, for suffer- 
ing is only an illusion, and to sympathize 
with it is only to increase it. Here is the 
man fallen among the thieves on the way to 
Jericho. The Priest and the Levite who 
passed by on the other side followed Chris- 


44 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


tian Science much more closely than the 
good Samaritan who had compassion on 
him, bound up his wounds, and poured in 
oil and wine. 

We grow by the expression of our sym- 
pathy, by its flow; not by its suppression. 
Do not close up the fountains of your heart. 
We have little enough of sympathy now. 
As you stultify thought by denying what 
your senses testify, so you choke the foun- 
tains of sympathy by denying the fact of 
suffering and sorrow. Here is the testi- 
mony of one who was once a Christian Sci- 
entist, but who gave it up : “When friends 
were sick, no matter how severe the pain, 
I was unmoved, feeling impatient if they 
continued so, after showing them the un- 
reality of such a state.” Pundita Ramabai, 
from whom we have quoted previously, 
says: “What has this philosophy done for 
the people of India? A tree is judged by 
its fruits. Americans are a people of some 
sympathy. Everything is real. You feel 
that when other people are starving you 
ought to give them something to eat. But 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


45 


in India they do not feel any sympathy for 
others. In our late famine our philoso- 
phers had no feeling for the sufferers; they 
did not help the needy. Why should they 
help when they claimed that the suffering 
was not real, neither were the dying chil- 
dren real?” 

As its teaching, if logically followed, 
robs one of sympathy for the suffering, so 
its theory that there is no sin robs one of 
compassion for the lost. Here is the testi- 
mony of one who has ceased to be a Chris- 
tian Scientist: “The salvation of those 
around me I cared very little about, feeling 
that every one must have his or her experi- 
ence, and if they did not profit by it here, 
they would hereafter, as all eventually 
would be saved, because God could not de- 
stroy Himself.” There is your theory that 
God is all; and if God be all, each man is 
a part of God, and for any one to be lost 
would be for a part of God to be lost. This 
accords perfectly with the cry of the Chris- 
tian Scientist who was taken to an insane 
asylum and was forever saying, “God can 
never be sick.” 


46 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


We know there are Christian Scientists 
who are tender toward sorrow and helpful 
toward suffering; but this is not in accord 
with their philosophy, it is in spite of it, 
it is “amiable inconsistency.” Wait until 
we have a generation of men and women 
who from childhood have been taught to 
close their hearts to suffering and sorrow, 
and there will be dearth of sympathy that 
will itself be pathetic. 

Christian Science teaching tends to break 
down the fine sense of truthfulness. Its de- 
votees are taught to deny what the senses 
tell them is so. When they are sick, if they 
are asked concerning their sickness, if they 
are true to their philosophy, they deny the 
fact. When a child crushes its finger and 
the pain is intense, it is taught to say, con- 
trary to the testimony of the senses, “It 
does not hurt; there is no pain.” After 
such a schooling it would not be strange if, 
when sin is committed, the youth should 
deny it. If you deny your senses in regard 
to pain, why not deny your moral sense in 
regard to sin? To say, when pain tortures, 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 47 


“There is no pain ;” to claim beside a coffin, 
“There is no death,” must beget hypocrisy. 
As Dr. Hillis says: “To deny suffering and 
death is to become the philosophers of mist 
and moonshine. To define life’s adversi- 
ties as figments of the brain, imperils intel- 
lectual integrity.” 

Christian Science lacks evangelistic 
force. The Christian Science movement 
grows mainly by preying upon the 
Churches. It is estimated that ninety per 
cent of its followers have come from Chris- 
tian communions. Many of our most lib- 
eral Churches are dependent upon the evan- 
gelical Churches for their ministry, and for 
many of their lay members. Churches that 
can not raise up their own ministry, that 
have not sufficient evangelistic force to se- 
cure the conversion of people for the sup- 
ply of their membership, are not the best 
type of Churches, and they are not the 
Churches that must redeem the world. The 
Christian Science movement does not reach 
down to the lower strata of humanity and 
pick up the fallen and the outcast and give 


48 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

them a grip upon the world’s Redeemer 
that “breaks the power of canceled sin.” 

It is said that Methodists pick up folks, 
that the Baptists wash them, that the Con- 
gregationalists starch them, and that the 
Episcopalians take them. This was said 
in merriment, we suppose; but it may be 
said in all solemnity that, if all that Chris- 
tian Science can do is to take folks after 
they have been picked up, washed, and 
starched, its mission is poor indeed. 

Any discussion of Christian Science 
would be incomplete without some direct 
reference to Mrs. Eddy. It is well known 
that Mrs. Eddy has been an hysteric most 
of her life. She claimed a new and direct 
revelation from God, but it has been proven 
by sworn testimony that almost every lead- 
ing idea in her philosophy was taken from 
previously printed books and from the 
manuscripts of Dr. Quimby. E. Wake 
Cook, in the Contemporary Review for 
October, 1903, on page 519 says: “Nearly 
every idea that is true in her system was 
published in widely read books sixteen 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 49 


years before her discovery, and over twenty 
years before her first work was published.” 

Many of us have read the sworn state- 
ments of men and women in the April 
number of McClure’s Magazine for 1907, 
where it is proven that again and again she 
sought to wreck homes by trying to sepa- 
rate husband and wife. Her record is one 
of repeated quarreling with those who have 
been associated with her. When Mrs. 
Eddy was Mrs. Glover she was staying at 
the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wentworth. 
According to the statements in McClure’s 
Magazine, Mrs. Glover, having sought to 
persuade Mrs. Wentworth to leave her hus- 
band, was told that she must find another 
place to stay. She made her departure one 
day while the Wentworths were away from 
home. When the Wentworths returned 
that night, they knocked at Mrs. Glover’s 
room, but there was no response. Several 
days later they forced the door open. Mr. 
Wentworth in his affidavit tells how he and 
his mother went into the room which had 
been occupied by Mrs. Glover. They 
4 


50 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


found the matting slashed to pieces, the 
featherbed mutilated, and on the floor of 
a closet some newspapers partially con- 
sumed, and upon these papers a pile of 
dead coals. 

Mrs. Eddy’s penchant for dollars is not 
very alluring. Three hundred dollars for 
“twelve easy lessons” has been her standard. 
Her books have been sold at several times 
their commercial value. Every Christian 
Scientist has been made an agent for this 
book, but all the profits must go to Mrs. 
Eddy. In the year 1897 Mrs. Eddy sent 
forth this dictum: “Christian Scientists in 
the United States and Canada are hereby 
enjoined not to teach a student Christian 
Science for one year, commencing on 
March 14, 1897. ‘Miscellaneous Writings’ 
[her last book, just published] is calculated 
to prepare the minds of all true thinkers 
to understand the ‘Christian Science Text- 
Book’ more correctly than a student can. 
The Bible, ‘Science and Health, with Key 
to the Scriptures,’ and my other published 
works, are the only proper instructors for 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


51 


this hour. It shall be the duty of all Chris- 
tian Scientists to circulate and sell as many 
of these books as they can. If a member 
of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, 
shall fail to obey this injunction, it will 
render him liable to lose his membership 
in this Church.” 

Her book, “Science and Health,” is 
rightly called “a copyrighted orthodoxy.” 
One well says: “When we think of the 
Without money and without price’ of the 
Gospels, we feel there is something more 
than nineteen centuries and the Atlantic 
rolling between Jesus and Mrs. Eddy.” 
Mrs. Eddy dictates that no sermon nor 
address shall ever follow the reading from 
the Bible and her book. Her primacy 
must be established, no matter what else 
may happen. 

Mrs. Eddy claims for herself a higher 
mission than Christ’s. She says: “I know 
the crucifixion of the one who presents 
Truth in its higher aspect will be this time 
through a bigger error, through mortal 
mind instead of its lower strata or matter, 


52 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


showing that the idea given of God this 
time is higher, clearer, and more perma- 
nent than before.” Thus she asserts that 
the revelation of God through her is higher 
and greater than the revelation through 
Christ our Lord. 

We quote now from the 1898 edition of 
“Science and Health:” “ ‘And there ap- 
peared a great wonder in Heaven, — a 
woman clothed with the sun, and the moon 
under her feet, and upon her head a crown 
of twelve stars.’ ‘And she brought forth a 
man-child, who was to rule all nations with 
a rod of iron; and her child was caught up 
unto God, and to His Throne.’ Led on 
by the grossest element of mortal mind, 
Herod decreed the death of every male 
child, in order that the man Jesus (the 
masculine representative of the spiritual 
idea) might never hold sway, and so de- 
prive Herod of his crown. The imperson- 
ation of the spiritual idea had a brief his- 
tory in the early life of our Master; but 
‘of His kingdom there shall be no end,’ for 
Christ, God’s idea, will eventually rule all 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 53 

nations and peoples — imperatively, abso- 
lutely, finally — with Divine Science. This 
immaculate idea, represented first by man 
and last by woman, will baptize with fire.” 

It was reported in the newspapers that 
Frank H. Leonard, of Boston, said in a 
lecture delivered at the Third Church of 
Christ, Scientist, Chicago, on April 25, 
1907: “Mrs. Eddy is unique in the history 
of the world and has attained a height 
hitherto unthought of by man or woman. 
She has proved that each one of us can do 
the things that Christ did, and in many 
ways she has done even greater than Christ, 
as she has established as a religion that 
which Christ failed to establish.” There 
was some denial of this later in some of 
the daily papers; but, whether Mr. Leon- 
ard said exactly these words or not, they 
are a corollary of the words we have al- 
ready quoted from Mrs. Eddy, in which 
she asserts her mission to be “higher, 
clearer, and more permanent” than that of 
Christ. It might be well to recall the warn- 
ing of the Psalmist: “Their sorrows shall 


54 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


be multiplied who exchange the Lord for 
another god.” 

It is interesting to note the claims made 
for Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy says: 
“The second appearing of Jesus is unques- 
tionably the spiritual advent of the advanc- 
ing idea of God as in Christian Science.” 
A Christian Science lecturer ventures: 
“Thus we prove that Christian Science is 
the second coming of Christ, Truth, Spirit. 
As was promised, this is the Spirit which 
should testify of the truth.” The author 
of “Science and Health” claims that Chris- 
tian Science is the Word (Logos) of God. 
The Holy Ghost is Christian Science ac- 
cording to Mrs. Eddy’s definition of “Holy 
Ghost” in the glossary of “Science and 
Health.” Christian Science is claimed to be 
the blessed Comforter whom the Lord 
promised to send to His disciples. “He 
shall give you another Comforter, that He 
may abide with you forever.” “This Com- 
forter,” says Mrs. Eddy, “I understand to 
be Divine Science.” Christian Science ap- 
propriates the words of Christ unto itself, 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 55 


and says of itself: “I am the Way, the 
Truth, and the Life.” “Come unto Me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I 
will give you rest.” 

A Wisconsin paper said awhile ago: 
“Most that is good in Christian Science is 
not new, and most that is new is not true.” 
A lady who is now a Christian Scientist 
said to the writer one time: “Since I have 
become a Christian Scientist I read my 
Bible and pray.” One wonders how she 
ever got the notion that she was a Chris- 
tian before, if she did not read the Bible 
and did not pray, for 

u Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, 

The Christian’s native air.” 

Whatever good there may be in the 
teachings of Christian Science, you do not 
have to become a Christian Scientist in 
order to get it. No man can point out any 
good thing in its whole teaching that a 
person can not have in a Christian Church. 
Many of us have heard or read Judge 
Ewing’s noted lecture on “Christian Sci- 


56 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


ence.” In it he says many good things, and 
says them beautifully, but we must give 
him credit for being too intelligent a man 
to think that he utters anything new. We 
say with a noted lecturer of Boston : “What- 
ever jewel there is in a pagan faith, let us 
take it from its place and add it to the neck- 
lace of Christianity; but let us not forget 
that a jewel may sometimes not be worth 
the taking if we take with it the toad in 
whose head it lies.” 

There is an old story related by Dr. 
Vance that the home of-a Chinaman burned 
down, and his pig was burned with it. 
While cleaning up the wreckage the China- 
man’s fingers touched the body of the burnt 
pig. Quickly the man put his fingers to 
his mouth to cool them, and accidentally 
got a taste of the roast pork. Cautiously he 
deposited the body of the pig in a secure 
place, and day by day feasted upon it. He 
soon rebuilt his home, but the neighbor- 
hood was soon alarmed by another fire, for 
the second house of this Chinaman was 
aflame. A third house was erected, and, 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


57 


strange to say, that also soon burned down. 
It was discovered, however, that a pig was 
roasted with each burned house. Soon the 
neighbors learned that roast pork was the 
cause of the misfortunes. They greatly 
relished pork, and soon house-burning be- 
came epidemic. It is not to create merri- 
ment that this rather inelegant illustration 
is used, but to make plain the truth that, 
as it is not necessary to burn down a house 
in order to have roast pork, so it is not nec- 
essary to become a Christian Scientist in 
order to have the truth there may be in 
Christian Science teaching. 

Recapitulation. We have thus sought to 
show the tremendous power of mind over 
matter in warding off disease and in curing 
sickness; that every gift of life, including 
scientific research in therapeutics, is to be 
accepted as a gift of God. We have urged 
that the contemplation of the beautiful and 
the good ought to be a part of our lives; 
that we should cultivate the cheerful, hope- 
ful, trustful attitude of mind ; that serenity 


58 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


and peace are a part of our heritage; that 
among the cardinal words of the Bible are 
these : “Cast all your care upon God.” “All 
things work together for good to those who 
love God.” “Take no anxious thought for 
the morrow.” “Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, 
because he trusteth in Thee.” “Whatsoever 
things are true, whatsoever things are hon- 
est, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever 
things are pure, whatsoever things are 
lovely, whatsoever things are of good re- 
port; if there be any virtue, and if there 
be any praise, think on these things.” 

We have shown that the cure of a dis- 
ease may be genuine, but the philosophy of 
the cure totally false, and that to found a 
religion upon the basis of the cure is per- 
ilous. 

We have pointed out how Christian Sci- 
ence does not establish its claims, that it 
fails repeatedly, and tragedies follow its 
path. 

We have indicated how Mrs. Eddy gives 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 59 


fanciful and fantastic meanings to words 
which have no warrant whatever in true 
philology; how she sets up “straw” men 
and demolishes them; how she introduces 
endless platitudes and publishes them as 
wonderful discoveries. 

We have seen that her philosophy con- 
cerning God, man, sin, vicarious atone- 
ment, prayer, and retribution are in conflict 
with the plain declarations of the Bible. 

We have shown how Christian Science 
tends to dry up the fountains of sympathy, 
how it breaks down the fine sense of truth- 
fulness, how it lacks evangelistic force by 
which people far in sin are reclaimed and 
rescued. 

We have seen that the character and his- 
tory of Mrs. Eddy are not such as to inspire 
confidence; that her eagerness for dollars, 
through the sale of her “copyrighted ortho- 
doxy,” is far from the spirit of Christ; that 
her claims that her mission is greater than 
that of Christ, and that the immaculate idea 
of God was first represented by Christ, and 


60 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 

now by herself, are little, if any, less than 
blasphemy. 

And, lastly, we have seen that whatever 
is good in Christian Science teaching any- 
body can have without leaving the Church 
to which he may belong. 
















Jl!t 29 1908 





























































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4 v 

















